CBSE NCERT Class X (10th) | Social Studies | History

Chapter – 8 Novels, Society and History

NCERT Chapter Solution

(a) Social changes in Britain which led to an increase in
women readers

(b) What actions of Robinson Crusoe make us see him as a
typical coloniser.

(c) After 1740, the readership of novels began to include
poorer people.

(d) Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political
cause.

Answer :

(a) As the middle classes became more affluent, women got
more leisure time to read and write novels. Also, novels began to explore the
world of women, their emotions, identities, experiences and problems. Domestic
life became an essential subject of novelsâ€”a field women had an authority to
speak about.

(b) Robinson Crusoe's actions that make us see him as a
typical coloniser are many. Shipwrecked on an island inhabited by coloured
people, Crusoe treats them as inferior beings. He is portrayed as "rescuing"
a native and then making him a slave. He gives him the name Friday, without
even caring to ask for his name. Colonised people were seen as barbaric and
primitive, and colonialism became their self-professed civiliser. Crusoe was a
direct representation of this ideology of colonisers.

(c) After 1740, the readership of novels began to include
poorer people because of the introduction of circulating libraries, low-priced
books, and also because of the system of hiring out of books by the hour. This
made books easily available to the poor people, who could not afford
books earlier due to high costs and absence of lending libraries.

(d) Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause
because the novel was a powerful medium for expressing social defects
and suggesting remedies for the same. It also helped establish a
relationship with the past. Since people from all walks of life could read
novels, it was an easy way to popularise anti-colonial ideas. It also helped
bring about a sense of national unity among the people.

Q2 :

Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century
Britain which Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.

Answer :

Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote mostly about the
effects of industrialisation. Dickens wrote about industrial towns and the
plight of the poor in themâ€”smoking chimneys, grim factories, pollution, and
identity-less and exploited workers. In his novel "Hard Times", he
criticises the greed for profits and the reduction of human beings into
tools of production. In other works, he dwells on the sad conditions of urban
life under industrial capitalism.

Thomas Hardy, on the other hand, wrote about traditional
rural communities of England which were vanishing in the face of rapid
industrial growth. The change from old agricultural practice of independent
farming to employment of labourers and machines on large farms can be seen in
Hardy's famed work "The Mayor of Casterbridge". In this novel,
through the character of Michael Henchard, Hardy demonstrates how he mourns the
loss of the personalised world, even though he knows its problems and
understands the advantages of the new order.

Q3 :

Outline the changes in technology and society which led
to an increase in readers of the novel in eighteenth-century Europe.

Answer :

The changes in technology and society which led to an
increase in readers of the novel in eighteenth century Europe were manifold.
The creation of libraries, cost-cutting printing techniques and hiring out of
books on an hourly basis allowed readership to expand beyond the aristocratic
class. Socially, as the market for books grew, novelists were freed of
aristocratic patronage, and could now explore different dimensions of the
society in their novels, for example, the lives of women and the working class.
All this led to an obvious increase in the number of people who read books in
eighteenth-century Europe.

Q4 :

Summarise the concern in both nineteenth-century Europe
and India about women reading novels. What does this suggest about how women
were viewed?

Answer :

The concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India
about women reading novels bore more or less similar fears. Women were seen as
easily corruptible and an imaginary world that the novel provided was seen as a
dangerous opening for the imaginations of its readers. In certain Indian
communities, it was felt that women who read novels would leave their
domestic environments and aspire to be part of the outside
worldâ€”the male domain.

This suggests that women were viewed as delicate and
incapable of being independent. They were merely expected to marry a man who
could take care of their financial needs while they maintained his household
and remained subservient to him.

Q5 :

Write a note on:

(a) The Oriya novel

(b) Jane Austen's portrayal of women

(c) The picture of the new middle class which the novel
Pariksha-Guru portrays.

Answer :

(a) In 1877-78, Ramashankar Ray started to serialise the
first Oriya novel, "Saudamini"; but it remained incomplete. Orissa's
first major novelist was Fakir Mohon Senapati. He wrote "Chaa Mana
Atha Guntha" that deals with land and its possession. This novel
illustrated that rural issues could be an important part of urban concerns.

(b) Austen portrayed the lives of women of genteel rural
society in early nineteenth-century Britain. Her novels explore the social
norms that women had to followâ€”predominantly, their duty was to marry
wealthy husbands who could offer them financial and social security. The women
in Jane Austen's novels are not always shown to conform to social convention.
Although her works do typify the society she lived in, the protagonist in her
novels is always an independent-minded woman.

(c) The novel "Pariksha-Guru" portrays the
difficulties of the new middle class in adapting to colonised society
while preserving its cultural identity. It emphasises that Western ideals
must be inculcated, but without sacrificing the traditional values of
middle-class households. The characters in this Hindi novel by Srinivas Das are
seen endeavouring to bridge the two different worlds of modern education
and traditional ethics.

Q6 :

In what ways was the novel in colonial India useful for
both the colonisers as well as the nationalists?

Answer :

The novel in colonial India was useful for both the
colonisers as well as the nationalists on account of a variety of reasons.
Colonial rulers found "vernacular" novels illuminating for the
information they provided on native customs and life. It was useful in the
governance of this diverse country. Indian nationalists used the form of the
novel to criticise colonial rule and instill a sense of national pride and
unity amongst the people.

Q7 :

Describe how the issue of caste was included in novels in
India. By referring to any two novels, discuss the ways in which they tried to
make readers think about existing social issues.

Answer :

Indians used the novel as a powerful medium to criticise
what they considered defects in their society and to suggest remedies. The
issue of caste was included in Indian novels for this same purpose. O Chandu
Menon's "Indulekha", a love story based on the lines of Benjamin
Disraeli's novel "Henrietta Temple", is a comment upon the
marriage practices of upper-caste Hindus in Kerala. Through the
characterisations of his main characters, the author (himself a
member of an "upper caste") pits the ignorant and immoral
Nambuthiri Brahmins against the educated and modern Nayars.

While writers like Chandu Menon wished to bring about
reforms within their castes, there were others who sought to reform the entire
caste-based society. In his novel "Saraswativijayam", Potheri
Kunjambu (a "lower-caste" writer from Kerala) attacks caste
oppression. The novel shows a young "untouchable" man flee
his village to escape caste-based tyranny. After converting to Christianity and
receiving modern education, he returns to his village as a judge in the local
court where the villagers had filed a case against the local Brahmin bully
for murdering this young man. In the end, the judge reveals his identity and
the Nambuthiri repents and reforms his ways. Apart from being critical of the
upper castes, this novel also stresses the importance of education for the
upliftment of the lower castes.

Q8 :

Describe the ways in which the novel in India attempted
to create a sense of pan-Indian belonging.

Answer :

The novel in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian
belonging by imagining the country to be full of adventure, heroism, romance
and sacrificeâ€”characteristics that could not be found in the offices and
streets of the nineteenth century world. It also gave the colonised people a
chance to give shape to their desires. For example, the Bengali historical
novels of this time, dealing with Marathas and Rajputs, served this purpose.

Another way in which the sense of belonging to a common
nation was popularised was by including various classes in the novel so that
they could be seen to belong to a shared world. The novels of
Premchand, populated by powerful characters belonging to almost all levels
of society, exemplify this.

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